Question on duck sexuality

[Conan]

Maybe it's because mine are all getting older. Youngest is probably 3 years old now, oldest close to 8. Nor sure, but I think I have 5 or more drakes living harmoniously with about 15 hens.

I'm jealous.

 

[Conan]

They are kind of ugly until you own one, then they grow on you.

Maybe I'll give them a try sometime, but I have a real soft spot for the Welshies, and Rouens!

 

[WVduckchick]

Call ducks seem to naturally pair off, much like wild mallards. The gal that gave me mine last year has a whole mess of them, and never pays much mind to the ratio of hens to drakes. Hers (and mine) don't abuse the ladies the same way standard ducks do. They may tussle amongst themselves, which is fine, so long as they leave my hens alone!

Personally, I can't stand having more than one standard drake regardless of how many hens I have. They gang rape the hens, and I have even had one of my hens killed by them. These ducks have a huge coop at night and pastured on a creek during the day. Never again. I butcher them as soon as they hit 6 months.

Exactly the same here. My calls pair off, or the hens choose which drake she “belongs to” (could be multiple hens to a single drake, or just pairs) and the drakes know not to mess with another drakes girls, for the most part.

But with my Swedish, I could not keep more than one drake once they were of mating age.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Some of my calls that are kept together have paired off naturally..
Not saying they never spread the love. . but for the most part they stick together and one male will not let another male breed his girl if he can help it.
Also my original pair keep to themselves. They done perfectly fine just the two of them in a pen for years. I've never seen breeding damage on her.
People do pair them up to breed for specific qualities. .
And I see nothing wrong with that as long as the drake is a gentle one.
I would say Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.
But it does seem to me that calls are more easily kept in pairs than large breeds.

 

[Conan]

Exactly the same here. My calls pair off, or the hens choose which drake she “belongs to” (could be multiple hens to a single drake, or just pairs) and the drakes know not to mess with another drakes girls, for the most part.

But with my Swedish, I could not keep more than one drake once they were of mating age.

The call pairs are pretty cute. I love watching the drakes stand guard while their girls brood.
Those standards just turn into jerks, don't they? I learned the hard way to get past their pretty faces and just get rid of them!

 

[shawluvsbirds]

The call pairs are pretty cute. I love watching the drakes stand guard while their girls brood.
Those standards just turn into jerks, don't they? I learned the hard way to get past their pretty faces and just get rid of them!

So far my Cayuga drake is pretty good to his girls. I tried keeping 2. . but that was definitely no good. It was more because of the two drake s fighting than abusing the girls.
I know it looks rough and sometimes you have to separate them for their own good. .but I have observed the hens being almost as aggressive to each other in a sexual way as the drake is. So I don't worry about it too much unless I see evidence that one is really getting hurt.

 

[silivren]

I have muscovy ducks and they are kept with my chickens. I made sure my one drake has enough females to keep him happy because they have a corkscrew penis which will kill my chickens if he gets too randy. I currently have 9 females for him. I also won't be keeping future if my ladies manage to hatch out any chicks this year.

 

[Conan]

So far my Cayuga drake is pretty good to his girls. I tried keeping 2. . but that was definitely no good. It was more because of the two drake s fighting than abusing the girls.
I know it looks rough and sometimes you have to separate them for their own good. .but I have observed the hens being almost as aggressive to each other in a sexual way as the drake is. So I don't worry about it too much unless I see evidence that one is really getting hurt.

I've definitely got some girls that like to pretend that they are drakes at times. It's even weirder when the other hens are receptive.
I think of ducks as little gangsters. When the girls are battling over status, the others gather in a circle around them and murmur loudly. I assume that they are talking smack.

 

[Knighstar679]

I don’t have my ducklings yet. Still waiting on a hatch. I will hopefully have Black East Indies, maybe Cayuga for a larger duck. So all this information is useful in my new flock plan.

 

[Kessel23]

A lot of it just depends on the individual birds. Large MD ducks will naturally pair off too. In my breeding pen of MDs I only have 4 birds, 2 of them are drakes. The hens are in excellent condition, so are both drakes. I also have a pen with 3 MD draks in it and no hens which is apparently hard to do without having a lot of fighting but their feather condition makes it clear that fighting does not happen often between them.
For muscovies, I have not noticed my drakes pairing off with any hens but I do catch them sitting next to the nesting boxes with the broody hens.